Playground More than Meets the Eye
From a distance the new playground at Victoria Park, 1025 Crowfoot Circle, in Hoffman Estates looks like any other playground. But in many ways, it is not.
First, the playground, owned and operated by the Hoffman Estates Park District (HE Parks) was renovated reusing as much as possible of the existing playground, saving the park district money. Secondly, it is the only playground in Hoffman Estates that is fully wheelchair accessible by means of rubber surfacing. Finally, the new playground features a mobile app that suggests fun activities for children.
HE Parks will dedicate the new playground at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 23.
Each of the park district's 40 playgrounds is on a 15-18 year rotation for replacement at a cost of $100K-200K per playground. The Victoria Park playground is an example of the park district's effort to be Green and to maximize resources by reusing existing concrete, recycled rubber fall surface, and existing playground posts at a savings of approx. $35,000.
The fall surface, made entirely of used rubber tires, was installed in 2001, through a grant from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's (IEPA) Used Tire program. Ground-up used tires absorb the impact when a child falls from playground equipment, making play safer. At that time rubber conveyor mats were installed as the wear surface. The newly renovated project involved removal of the mats and in its place a recycled rubber poured-in-place system was installed.
"Reusing the base rubber saved the district $20-25,000 in disposal fees alone," said HE Parks' Director of Planning and Development Gary Buzckowski. "The product still has a lot of life left, it made sense to save the material from disposal and save the park district a lot of money."
Even the posts from the old playground were repurposed. After a fresh coat of paint was applied to the posts, new playground features such as ramps, slides and swings, were added.
"Working with the old equipment force us to tweak the plans a little to make the old and new work from a timing perspective, that's the downside to repurposing materials, but it was worth the savings," said Buzckowski.
New to the playground is an interactive game that can be played with a mobile device. Colorful icons on the playground cue parents to play videos for their children that encourage activities on each section of the playground.
Renovations to the Victoria Park playground are expected to be complete by the first of July and a ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 23, when the playground will be dedicated to late park board commissioner Peter M. Smith. Smith was a champion and advocate for individuals with disabilities. He helped create a Hoffman Estates village ordinance requiring that all public buildings be wheelchair accessible.